This something we all hope we never have to experience
Let's hope this story will help to stop others going through a similar floating accident
Sometimes I feel the need to put pen to paper on a sober subject. This one is floating and before I go too far I have to let you know that everybody, human and equine, was fortunately fine after this terrible ordeal.
My good friend Jackie Sept who so often takes my young horses and shows them a bit about life in Perth was recently down in Albany with her float and horses.
Three weeks earlier she had taken her towing vehicle to have its towing hitch serviced where all was pronounced fine.
So one Sunday morning Jackie heads off to a competition and fortunately was going very slowly, thanks to the appalling road we live on, when the float started swaying badly. Somehow Jackie kept her ute upright but the float landed on its side, with two horses in it - one was Jackie’s, one was mine. Thankfully Jackie had put a spare bay between the horses, which turned out to be a real blessing. My horse was at the back and somehow she struggled to her feet and was able to be lead out the back of the float with just some superficial stitching required.
Jackie’s horse meanwhile was upside down and stuck with her head out the front window. Full credit to the makers of the float that it was built well enough to allow the dividers to be pulled out, despite the situation and once the horse was sedated she was able to be dragged out. She was sore and bruised but otherwise basically ok.
So what had happened?
Even though the hitch had just been serviced the ‘R’ clip that holds the pin in, that holds the drawbar in place, had come out. We will never know if it rattled loose on our terrible roads or simply failed.
What we do know is each and every time we hook up a float from now on it will not be a cursory glance we give the the pin. It will be grabbed and rattled. We were so lucky that everyone walked away. So please before you load up those wonderful trusting creatures and take them out so we can all have fun please, please always check your float hitch.
And the most amazing bit of the whole story for me was when we asked my horse to go back on a truck to come home she just walked on. How amazing are horses?
